BY HARLEY WHITE


Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

O Nebulae of Heart and Soul!
In infrared portrayal WISE,
your colors grace the stellar skies.
Have you a core celestial role?

Supernal presences you seem
that steal one’s fancy unawares,
far-off from earthly human cares,
inspiring a soulful dream.

Does music of the spheres resound
in utterness of heavens’ art
to beating of a boundless heart
we seldom hear here on the ground?

You bring to mind the vintage song,
where lovers fell in love and kissed
one magic night in moonlit mist—
a classic tune, still going strong.

Six thousand light-years from our Earth
is where you two evince your charm—
part of Perseus’ spiral arm—
in cosmic womb for starry birth.

That limb is in our Milky Way.
Cassiopeia holds the Soul
east of the Heart, to make the whole
of the mosaic on display.

Your archetypal names evoke
Cupid and Psyche myths of old,
tales allegorical untold,
poetic visions you awoke.

In concert you’re a perfect pair.
Befittingly you reign on high.
Lest we forget wherefore and why,
our true humanity is there!

--Harley White, June, 2015

Inspiration for the poem came from the image and article “Heart and Soul”... http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/multimedia/wiseimage20100524.html

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